Award Abstract # 1464526
WORKSHOP SUPPORT - Optimizing the next generation of AMS for measuring 10-Be and 26-Al

NSF Org: EAR
Division Of Earth Sciences
Recipient: UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT & STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE
Initial Amendment Date: January 2, 2015
Latest Amendment Date: January 2, 2015
Award Number: 1464526
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Russell Kelz
EAR
 Division Of Earth Sciences
GEO
 Directorate for Geosciences
Start Date: January 1, 2015
End Date: December 31, 2015 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $9,720.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $9,720.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2015 = $9,720.00
History of Investigator:
  • Paul Bierman (Principal Investigator)
    pbierman@uvm.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of Vermont & State Agricultural College
85 S PROSPECT STREET
BURLINGTON
VT  US  05405-1704
(802)656-3660
Sponsor Congressional District: 00
Primary Place of Performance: University of Vermont
180 Colchester Avenue
Burlington
VT  US  05405-1758
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
00
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): Z94KLERAG5V9
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): Instrumentation & Facilities,
ANS-Arctic Natural Sciences
Primary Program Source: 01001516DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
0100XXXXDB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 7556, 9150
Program Element Code(s): 158000, 528000
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.050

ABSTRACT

Bierman
1464526

This grant will support 1.5-day workshop to held fall 2014 on the campus of UC-Irvine that will bring together experts that use Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) to determine the abundances AMS of cosmogenic nuclides 10Be and 26Al for application to geomorphic processes research. The workshop will focus on the possible use of new generation, lower voltage, highly automated, and far less costly AMS systems than have been traditionally used in the U.S. to date. It is envisioned that lower cost, low voltage (1 MeV) AMS systems will allow for high throughput cosmogenic nuclide analysis at modest cost enabling hundreds of measurements that can be used to characterize the probability distribution of isotope concentrations ? allowing greatly enhanced reliability for dating moraines, for isochron burial dating of sediments, and for tracing sediment across the landscape.

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

We used National Science Foundation support to convene a workshop of experts in Irvine, California, at the University of California.  The goal of the workshop was straightforward, to modify an existing instrument design and outline a facility that could cut the cost of making accelerator mass spectrometric measurements of the rare isotope 10-be by a factor of at least two.  We seek to cut the cost of such measurements to both more effectively use NSF funds and to expand the use of this isotope system to more scientists - democratizing the use of what has always been a costly and difficult to apply isotopic system.

Over two days of face to face meetings along with numerous other scientists joining us by SKYPE and telephone connections, we worked out technical details, management strategies, and costing philosophies for what we hope to be the first new AMS facility of its kind in the United States.  We toured the Irvine facility and used that instrument (which is dedicated to measuring 14-C) as a template that could be modified and optimized to measure 10-Be.

The intellectual merit of our work focused on the modifications of the existing AMS technology to optimize the measurement of 10-Be specifically.  The broader impacts focused on cost-cutting and making such measurements more widely available to the geoscience community.

With input from all involved, we crafted a publicly accessible report that we edited as a group and then posted on line for public access and use.  The report is available for download as a PDF file from: http://www.uvm.edu/cosmolab/FINAL_AMS_white_paper_1_25_15.pdf


Last Modified: 01/04/2016
Modified by: Paul R Bierman